Good Evening,
Yesterday, here at vZAU, we experienced (not for the first time) a miscommunication for an event between the facility and the VA holding the event. The airline had posted the event to take place at KORD on Jan. 31 0000Z-0400Z. The confusion was very evident in that VA's forum. ZAU was fully staffed up at 0000Z Jan. 31 for the event and there was no traffic from that VA into KORD acheduled. The VA actually wanted the event from 0000Z-0400Z Feb. 1 (they wanted the event to be this evening - Sunday evening Jan. 31 in the US).
To avoid confusion, I suggest that VA's, when advertizing an event, to post it in their forums, as well as sending a message to the ARTCC they want involved, to have the date and times listed in both Zulu and local times. I had messaged that VA's VP-Events and he agreed that they had made the mistake, which is understandable about how the mistake was made.
I use this analogy to show the difference between Zulu dates and times and local (CST for this example).
It is 2359Z, Dec. 31. All the folks in the UK have their party hats and party favors on, waiting for the clock to hit 0000Z, Jan 1 to bring in the new year. The clock hits 0000Z Jan. 1, they are celebrating the new year...yet here in the middle of the US, it is only 1800 CST on Dec. 31!
There is a difference when using a 24 hour clock between 0000 and 2400. 0000 is the START of the new day (Actually 0000:01) and 2400 is the end of that new day. So, if someone states 0000Z on a certain date, just remember that here in the US, that would be the DAY BEFORE (Zulu -5 for EST, -6 for CST, -7 for MST, and -8 for PST).
I hope this can alleviate future confusion for hosting an event.
